Veteran Owned Small Businesses (VOSB’s) would get their own contracting goal for DOD contracts under Section 861 of the House version of the FY’25 NDAA.  VOSB’s would have at least the same 5% goal currently allotted to Service-Disabled Veteran Owned Small Businesses (SDVOSB’s).  Most notably, however, Section 861 would necessarily increase DOD’s overall small business contracting goal beyond the governmentwide 23% level.  The administration has told agencies that they expect 13% of contract awards to be made to small, disadvantaged businesses.  When combined with existing 5% goals for SDVOSB’s and women-owned small businesses the 23% target is met.  Even if agencies award only 10% of contracts to small, disadvantaged businesses, the existing 3% goal for HUBZone contracting still adds up to at least 23% of business going to small business prime contractors.  A 5% VOSB goal would push that to 28%, before the use of any small contractors that lack a further socio-economic identifier is taken into consideration. Section 861, as such, would effectively push the DOD small business prime contracting goal to over 30%.  Large businesses may want to expand their VOSB networks to leverage new set-aside or sole source opportunities, especially if the total amount of contract dollars dedicated to small firms is going to rise.  Section 861 contains additional provisions that would make VOSB business particularly easy to conduct.  DOD CO’s would be able to set-aside procurements for VOSB’s and even make sole source awards in a manner similar to that now used for 8(a) sole source awards.  Significantly, the provision makes no mention of their having to be at least two VOSB’s deemed capable of doing the work in order for a set-aside to be applied.  Section 861 could have a significant impact on the DOD business for companies of all sizes.  As such, contractors should track the progress of this provision to see if it remains in the final version of the NDAA expected to be passed later this year.